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It is nothing more than a rumor, but China's Twitter equivalent, Weibo, posts that North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un has died in a possible coup have gone viral and now spread to Twitter. As MIT journalism instructor Seth Mnookin tweeted, "Rumor of assassination also floating around; no confirmation RT @KSHartnett Hearing word of #NorthKorea coup. Kim Jong Un on the run." But everybody with half a brain is treating the rumor with a good deal of suspicion. "Probably fake like last rumor of coup," tweeted Chinese journalist Joe Xu. Still, the closest thing to actual facts to back up the current round of rumors, as Xu mentions is a photo of cars at the North Korean embassy in Beijing, which some are saying is more than usual. "More rumors on #Weibo dealing with North Korea, usual number of cars at NK embassy, Kim Jong-un assassination attempt, etc," Xu tweeted. Still, as Gawker points out, rumors like this almost always turn out to be false. Kim Jong-un's brother did predict his sibling wouldn't last long. But without any confirmation at all, it's too early to call him prescient.
Update (1:08 p.m. EST): The rumor that Kim Jong-Un was killed (or died, or even that there was an attempt made on his life, or that anything else untoward happened to him) has been out for more than an hour now, and no legitimate news organizations have reported it. So for now it looks like pure fantasy. It's also firmly in Twitter-meme territory. Kim Jong-Un's name is fertile territory, as @AngryMnkyFight demonstrates: "Kim Jong Un dead or Kim Jong Undead. Remember kids, spacing is the difference between assassinations and zombies." So's the leader's weight, as comedian Chris Jenkins shows us: "Due to mistranslation, there are rumors that Kim Jong Un was assassinated in China. What it actually said was that he assassinated a buffet."
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/global/2012/02/twitter-weibo-light-kim-jong-un-death-rumors/48565/
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Whoa what?!
I would like hear this from more sources.
really need more sources...
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So we're to have a dicussion based on speculation and rumors of a supposed death which may or may not have occured? At a buffet?
...
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Assassinate a buffet.
Wait what?
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Whoaaaaaa... probably a rumor though.
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From chaos comes order, from order comes chaos.
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Wow...... this would be unbelievable. I don't know what to think.
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I'm not sure what to hope for here.
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I thought the buffet joke was pretty funny
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On February 11 2012 03:23 ComusLoM wrote:
I'm not sure what to hope for here.
While eating delicious food at a Chinese buffet, Kim Jong-Un accidentally put something on his plate that didn't taste good.
The cook was taken back to North Korea for questioning, and was summarily executed for failing to put out a perfect buffet.
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What?! If this is true that this could have huge implications, especially considering NK's nuclear capabilities.
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No way you would kill him in a coup. Be smart about it, making him die in an accident, or of sickness, you can't just kill him.
I say just a rumor
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motbob
United States12546 Posts
Let's not make a thread until it's confirmed, please
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Calgary25989 Posts
OMG MOTBOB DEAD? CONFIRMED @ TWITTER!!!
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EPT
